Brit Hume Goes Bonkers

Michael Sean Winters
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Jan. 4, 2010
NCR Today

Fox News commentator Brit Hume has gone off the deep end, even by Fox News’ standards which are a pretty low bar. On the network’s Sunday show, Hume noted [1]that Tiger Woods is a Buddhist but that he should “turn to the Christian faith” because only the Christian faith would provide him with the “forgiveness and redemption” the golf star so obviously needs.

Well, in seminary I was not exactly stellar at the pastoral care department, and I am a big fan of everyone becoming Christian. But, a person in crisis should probably not be counseled to abandon his or her own faith traditions unless the conversion was part of an organic process, not the result of advice offered on a Sunday talk show. Buddhism is not my cup of tea – I love creation and its delicacies too much – but it certainly embodies a means towards achieving forgiveness and redemption.

Of course, the funniest aspect of Hume’s on-air proselytism was the look on Bill Kristol’s face. Kristol observed, “Well, Brit’s concerned about Tiger’s soul, which is admirable, but I just made a more straightforward sports prediction, which was that he’ll come back and win the Masters.” Kristol, who is Jewish, did not choose to engage Hume on the subject of Christianity’s exclusive avenue to forgiveness and redemption. I wish he had. "Fair and balanced" and all that.